Giving Gifts

One thing that I have learned with my kids especially with my girls is that they love to give gift to evveryone. This last Christmas my 10 year old was consistantly bring little gifts home from her friends and of course she wanted to give one back in return. Well having been on an extremely tight budget I could not afford to go out and buy all her friends something. Even at $1 each with 5 kids it was going to add up fast. So I was torn on what we could do. I want my kids to learn and have a strong desire to give to others but I am also trying to teach my children to live within their means. So I have made the goal to get organized and plan ahead for these things so that I can save money and still be able to give to others.
So I have started to shop ahead of time. This is something that I have always thought would be a great idea but never seemed to be able to do. After Christmas is one of the best times to find great deals but who ever has money after Christmas to buy anything. Well this year I decided to save just $25 to buy things that go one clearance for things that will be coming up. When we finally went shopping (we live an hour a way from anything) all the Christmas stuff was 75% off. I found some bath gift sets for $1.25 and some cute heart shaped soaps for $0.25. So I got as much as I could. I also found some really nice Christmas ordaments that will be great for teachers, neighbors or any gift exchange I might come across. So my shopping trip was a succuss.
Have you ever gotten something thinking this would be a great gift so someone and then forget that you have it until it is to late. That happens to me all the time. So to truely make this worth while you need to be organized with your stuff. I also bought 2 plastic totes to store my treasures in. I call these my gift giving  tubs. Anything that I buy goes in these tubs so that I know where to find them. The come in very handy for every occassion. When my kids come home with a good report card or having helped out extra around the house I can always go to my tubs and find something to suprise them with. When my kids come home with a last minute birthday invitation I can just go and pull out a gift for them and I am never paying full price for a gift again.